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2025 Canada Job Market: Legal Hiring Trends and In-demand Jobs

Salary and hiring trends Legal Workplace Research Research and insights Article

Learn what jobs are in demand

Access Report Explore our Demand for Skilled Talent report to see what specializations employers need most.
Lawyers and managers in law firms and legal departments are recruiting for both permanent and contract positions in the first half of 2025, making the demand for skilled talent high among Canadian legal teams. At the end of December 2024, Statistics Canada reported an unemployment rate of 1.8 per cent for the profession. Low unemployment among skilled legal professionals isn’t the only obstacle Canadian companies face. Other challenges include legacy systems, change management, and a digital revolution which is challenging Canadian law firms and corporate legal departments alike to invest in new technology to keep pace with increased work demands and competitors. To support and implement these investments, they also need to hire legal professionals with digital skills and expertise. To meet their hiring goals, Canadian companies must continue finding innovative ways to attract and retain both long-term and short-term legal talent. Approaches such as offering above-average compensation and engaging recruiters to help you tap into the pool of passive job seekers are more important than ever.

Top legal job market trends

Law firms in major Canadian markets are seeing a high demand for their services. Still, half of legal employers say finding candidates with the required skill sets is their greatest hiring challenge in 2025. The latest Salary Guide from Robert Half Canada showed how legal professionals are trying to attain better work-life balance through remote and hybrid work arrangements, although many employers want them fully in-office. According to Robert Half recruiters, this can contribute to positions being left unstaffed. In addition, Robert half recruiters are also noticing corporate legal departments are slowing hiring compared to past years. Many employers across Canada can’t find the candidates they need for permanent legal roles but their solution to keeping projects on track has been engaging talent solutions firms to staff contract positions. Visit the 2025 Canada Salary Guide From Robert Half for more legal hiring trends.

In-demand roles in the legal job market

The following positions are in the top 15 per cent of legal roles in demand, according to an analysis of thousands of job postings and Robert Half placements: Law Clerk Lawyer, 2 – 3 years’ experience  Lawyer, 4 – 9 years’ experience  Legal administrator, 1 – 2 years’ experience  Legal administrative assistant  Legal assistant

2025 Legal hiring trends: what legal managers are looking for

The current hiring focuses are as follows: 43 per cent of legal managers are hiring new staff for permanent roles 54 per cent are focused on backfilling permanent roles that have been vacated Most – 98 per cent – of Canadian hiring managers are struggling to find skilled legal talent

Strategic priorities for legal hiring in 2025

Here’s what’s topping the agenda of leaders in the legal sector: For law firms: Expanding into new specializations or practice areas Diversity, equity and inclusion efforts Retention and succession planning AI and legal technology integration For legal departments: Technology implementation and automation AI innovation and governance Legal optimization and efficiency Environmental, social and governance efforts

Law firms and legal departments embrace contract talent

Of note, nearly half – 48 per cent – of legal leaders are gearing up to increase their use of contract professionals in the first half of 2025. This strategy is about more than just temporarily addressing staff shortages; it's about accessing specialized skills crucial in today’s legal job market. Law firms need contract talent for these positions: Legal specialist Law firm administration Legal research and analysis Attorney/lawyer General administration Legal departments need contract talent for the following roles: Paralegal/legal assistant Legal specialist Legal administration Legal research and analysis Litigation support/eDiscovery Learn more tactics for attracting top legal talent.

About the Demand for Skilled Talent report

The Demand for Skilled Talent report by Robert Half is an authoritative source providing essential insights into 2025's employment trends. This report has offered a deep dive into Canada’s hiring landscape for over a decade, spotlighting challenges and strategies to attract and retain talent in today’s job market. It explores what employees seek in their careers, identifies common recruitment errors and suggests solutions. The report spans sectors like finance, technology, marketing, legal and human resources, proving crucial for business leaders and managers. Data methodology The surveys cited were developed by Robert Half and conducted by an independent research firm. Results may not total 100% due to rounding or allowing for multiple responses. Respondents included executives, hiring managers and workers from small (10-99 employees), midsize (100-999 employees) and large (1,000-plus employees) businesses in private, publicly listed and public sector organizations across Canada. Over 200,000 new positions from more than 5,400 unique job boards/company sites independent job boards and company websites are represented in this report, including 6,000-plus placements from Robert Half. Positions are categorized into more than 350 job titles within Robert Half’s Salary Guide using a proprietary mapping methodology that employs state-of-the-art large language models. This dataset includes roles across the finance and accounting, technology, marketing and creative, legal, administrative and customer support, and human resources professions.